Video of lightning strike shared as Russian attack in Mariupol, Ukraine - Alt News
Kalim Ahmed
25th February 2022 / 6:33 pm / Last updated: 25th February 2022
After Russia launched an attack on Ukraine on Thursday, a video clip was shared on Twitter claiming it shows explosions in the coastal region of Mariupol, Ukraine.
Mariupol under almost constant bombardment in this video. pic.twitter.com/Rnnd5b5ALk
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) February 24, 2022
This video soon got picked up by various Indian media outlets such as The Times of India, Brut India, Mojo Story, etc and was shared across various platforms as visuals of the “bombardment” of Ukraine.
Brut India posted the video on Instagram which generated over 1.4 lakh likes.
Mojo Story shared the video as a YouTube short while crediting Twitter.
This video was also quote-tweeted by Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist Ahmer Khan.
We checked the replies under journalist Ahmer Khan’s tweet that claimed the video is two days old and shows a lightning strike on a transformer.
This is not from today, this is two days ago. Lightning hitting a transformator.
— T̶h̶o̶m̶a̶s̶ ̶H̶a̶u̶g̶e̶ 🇳🇴 (@MUFC_HAUGE) February 24, 2022
We closely watched the video and quite evidently, the lightning is followed by the sound of thunder.
Another Twitter user replied under Ahmer Khan’s tweet calling it “fake news”. The user claimed that the video is of a thunderstorm from January 29 and shared the link to a TikTok video. We accessed the TikTok video using the TOR browser and checked the source code for the upload time. It corroborated with the claim made by the Twitter user. This itself proves that the video is unrelated to the Ukraine crisis.
Another important fact that should be kept in mind is that the current average temperature for Mariupol has been 0°C or below. But when the lightning strikes in this video, the trees appear to be green. According to Weather Atlas, January receives the most snowfall, but it isn’t visible in the video.
While the location of the video is unconfirmed, it is safe to conclude that the video is not related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict since it has been on the internet for over a month.
Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc
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